There's nothing like the first stages of wedding planning to quickly inform you of your life choices. I don't have an actual best friend anymore...and thus, don't have an obvious choice for maid of honour or any of that other crap. In fact, I don't really have any extrasuperclose girlfriends that I want to help me with my plans. This is all my choice or, at least, a reflection of the choices I have made in the past. When it comes down to it, this makes me feel very lonely, for a time that should feel very loving, warm and happy. As with all things, I'll live.

Got engaged.

Pretty good European vacation.

I'm leaving! My stuff is all over the dining room table (my own special brand of packing) and my out of office is on - it's OFFICIAL!

Yeeee!

Of course, because my trip starts tomorrow, I'm sick. I'm expecting it to get better quickly, but the timing still sucks.

Packing needs to be done and laundry and cleaning, but I'm soooo not interested in moving from the couch. *sigh*

I'm excited though, don't get me wrong.

James is home...(James insists that I insert the word "yay" here) and guess what? I'm so very glad for it. Ha ha. Not only am I glad to have James home, but I'm ever-so-pleased that he corrected my mistake: I leave for Europe on Thursday, NOT Friday as I previously believed. Awesome. That would have sucked hard. Very, very hard.

In other news, James brought me home the most incredible treats: German stationary, Holland clogs, and truffles from heaven. The truffles are so good that I nearly died eating the first one.

I also spent some time this evening thrilling a boy at Starbucks. I love my life.

James is on a plane. It lands this afternoon. Surprisingly I don't have a lot of cleaning to do, but I do still have to get at it.

The fire alarm started chirping this morning and I couldn't figure out what it was. I eventually did a very stupid thing and got onto a chair in the hallway, beside the lower-then-permitted-railing and, while half asleep, tore it from the ceiling. Than I pulled out the battery and went to bed. Totally safest thing ever. Ha ha.

Ahh, where to get started...shower first? Run dishwasher? Vacuum? Ugh...fun times.

Hey, so, um, guess what?
I'm three weeks off my meds.
Yup.

I've been good enough lately and it just felt right. I'm surprised that I'm doing this with James away, but it isn't as bad as I expected. To be fair, they're probably still in my system, but I'm feeling good about this. Hope it keeps up.

Plus side: my libido is hanging around in full force again. Welcome back tiger.

I have a complete set again. My rib slid back into place this morning during my chiropractor appointment. It couldn't have come at a better time - I was feeling the pain subside, but didn't want to get too comfortable. About freaking time. I still have to take it easy, but I'm much happier about this and my chiropractor was surprised about how quickly this turned around once she started treating me.

Having Molly gone is so strange. I keep thinking I have to be home for her and to check in, but I really don't. Having my responsibility taken away for a little while is pleasant, but unnerving.

I've told James that when he comes home we're taking classes together. Dance classes. I want to do partnered dancing again so badly and I'm forcing him now. He is allowed to pick the style of dance, I'll do anything, but he's going to be present. Hopefully this doesn't kill us...ha ha. Speaking of James, he's home on Saturday. Should be good times.

I'm still fussing over the box of items from home. I thought there was going to be a few items in the box that aren't there and now I'm not sure where they are. I was looking forward to them and I want to find them soon.

Perhaps I should update about something other than updating.
Snicker.

How about this? It is 2:48PM and I'm still unwashed and naked. I should really tackle life at some point today.

My mother has been harping for as long as I can remember about the stuff I still have in her house. As a present to her last weekend I told my dad to put as much of it as he could in the car and send it to me via my brother who was up here to visit friends. He sent two boxes - one full of high school era photos and the second is, essentially, "the box of boyfriends past". Before we get all jumpy: I'm on good, even excellent, terms with all those boyfriends. But now I don't know what to do. I really want to scan everything and throw it up on a site for people to browse through. Everyone loves going through other people's personal items and I really think I'd get a kick out of it. But do I have to ask them permission first? What if I just do a little scrubbing over names? What's the time limit on rights to love notes?

Delicious though, if I do it.

Molly went to my parents' today for a vacation. She's gone until mid-November so that I can have my own vacation in a few weeks without stressing over her. I miss her already. She was pissed off about me packing up all of her things though - I can tell, she tortured many items in the house and caused enough destruction in several rooms to remind me I still have a dog.

At the beginning of the month we played in London. While there isn't much more I want to say about that, I do want to bitch and moan about my arm/shoulder/rib issue. During the game I put out my 1st rib on the right side. Of course, I chalked up the pain in my upper body to not stretching after the game and maybe even getting a little sick. Turns out the rib was causing enough havoc to make movement painful. I finally gave in and went to my chiropractor - she was stunned I waited so long. When she tried to adjust me I was crying and whimpering in pain. I've seen her twice this week and will go again on Monday. She'll decide on Monday how many times I should see her next week. I've been icing like a mother fucker and I want this to be over so badly. My rib still isn't in the right spot and there's a spot on my back that I can't touch without wanting to crawl out of my body. By mid day this week I've hit a point where the wrong type of movement actually makes me dizzy and ill. I've also come to realise I don't own enough button down shirts or cowl neck items - they're the only things I can comfortably put on and, more importantly, take off. I thought I would have to cut off my t-shirt the other day.

Yeah, I know, this is pretty small. A friend started chemo today, so I haven't quite got the right to complain, but to each their own, I suppose.

Argh.

In other news, James is on his way to Amsterdam this weekend. I gave him the green light for the red light district...and I don't just mean a walking tour.

This is the first time I've felt that I'm getting older. Last week we played in London and I took a physical beating. Since then I've more day-to-day pain than I care to remember. My knee needs to be iced whenever I'm not standing and my right shoulder/neck feels like it will never move back into position. I've become very familiar with my bathtub and, though I'm happy to have the quiet time, I really wish it wasn't because I'm in pain. With all the pain in my upper back and neck I couldn't tell the difference between flu-like symptoms and allergies. I've never been so aware that my body isn't bouncing back swiftly. All I want is for my body to go back to normal. For the pain to stop (and take the headache with it...I have my suspicions they hang out together).

It has been a week since James left. I've had ups and downs. Thankfully I'm still alive, in one piece and getting used to being more alone. I'm spending a lot of time out though, which is helping. Roxan is a good playmate for me right now - we're in the same boat and can sit in silence or rumble about in nothingness and laugh at anything.

I've also been sucked into the Twilight series of books and have bagged the first two in a week. I'm sure I'll finish up the final two in the coming week. Let's face it, I'm a sucker for an edgy little romance. Nothing gets me harder than the protective and seductive male character. I fall for them every time.

Last night's practice left me favouring my hip. Not because of anything serious, but because of a glowing, hot and intricate fishnet burn. This is the biggest, clearest one I've ever had. I wish the camera was here (and not in Germany) to get a good picture. Camera phones don't do it justice.

Traipsing around the mall today got me thinking and I'm going to upgrade my OS. It's time to put a little effort into keeping this computer going while I wait for a sack of money to fall form the sky so that I can do a proper upgrade. James wants to buy me a netbook for birthday/Christmas, which might be nice, but I also don't know how I feel about taking on a PC again after so many Mac years.

We're heading to London for a game next weekend, stopping in Oshawa along the way. My parents are looking forward to having us there, but 14 people is a lot..ha ha. I'm going to get them to do a little work beforehand to make things smoother on Saturday. I know my dad is going to be thrilled to have people around, especially Jeff. James is bummed out that he can't come to the game given that I'll be doing a little more jamming than ever before. Yikes!

I feel less despondent than I did earlier this weekend. That's a good thing.

Hey - look! I'm making a post!

James left yesterday for Germany (essentially gone for the rest of the year). And I've had an eventful 24 hours.

I don't know how to use the O-Train. Yeah, that's not something I thought I'd have trouble with! Thank you for the accidental free ride.

I've also managed to get broken glass and steamed milk all over the kitchen, dining room and living room this morning. And the cat has a mysterious cough/sneeze that she developed at 1:45AM and just HAD to tell me about.

Thankfully it is Sunday and while I have a work meeting this evening, I have very little on my plate this afternoon. Lappy and I might take a walk during Molly's grooming visit. Then I might be able to get some work done in advance of said meeting.

*sigh*

Lots of "alone" and "bored" on my plate for the next little while. I'll be forcing friends into interactions before long.

While cleaning the office recently I passed over a pile of "Oh, I'll scan that later" stuff and finally got down to scanning. Here is my favourite item from that pile:




I did eventually grow to love and enjoy my museology course, but those first few classes were absolute chaos and disappointment. I'm not sure I got what I wanted out of the course in the end, but at least I didn't want to hang myself as often.

We moved the cat's litter box when we bought a deep freeze. She hated that. She has spent her time peeing on my clothing ever since. I snapped and James went down to the basement to move the stuff from around the furnace/water tank so that he could reposition her box into a more feng shui location for Miss PissyPants. While moving the boxes he noted that the ONLY SHOWER IN THE HOUSE IS NOW LEAKING. Any chance of weekend zen has been completely obliterated in the last 12 hours between snappy little barbs and generally irritating circumstances.

Oh, and I'm getting my period, so you know I'm taking this all in stride! *eye roll of the century*

What I need is an extra two days of nothing during which I can sort through this shitstorm and makes things right again. And perhaps find time to vacuum.

I did some cleaning on LJ today. Basically took a look at what I was getting in my Friends feed (or what I was not getting...) and adjusted accordingly. This mainly affected the communities. There's no need to continue hearing from Ottawa U and Carleton students. I'm done with that scene and I'd rather jump out before the "what do you think of Prof. X?" questions start popping up. I fucking hate that.

It just felt like I had to do some of this cleaning to get myself back into Livejournal again. I don't like to log on and see all these things that really don't matter to me anymore. It takes away from my experience and leaves me with zero desire to interact. I'm going to try to find a few more communities that might give me what I'm looking for online now that I've grown up and gotten over myself.

And it is Canada Day.

I went to the ``spa`` for the first time ever today. It was delicious. I arrived and was immediately told to undress and put on a robe...for a facial. The room was so dark, but it smelled wonderful. After putting on the robe I sat on the lounger and the woman doing my treatment washed my feet. I was a little surprised that it was part of the facial, but I don`t think I ever want to wash my own feet ever again. Having your feet washed by someone else is awesome. End of story on that one.

While laying on the strange bed (part wicker furniture, part pod) my hair was held back with a towel head band and I settled in to listen to the music and get pampered. I have no clue what she used on my face: I sincerely believed she would tell me all about it the whole way along (it was at a Harnn & Thann spa, so I expected a sales moment - not once did that happen though!). After a million smells and wonderful face washing she exposed my shoulders and part of my treatment included a MASSAGE. Freaking hell, I didn`t know that when I booked. I loved it, even if it was only a mini massage while my face dried.

The part I think I enjoyed the most was the masque and the hot towel that came after. Although the massage rates pretty highly, the quiet and peacefulness of my time alone while wearing the masque was fantastic. I can`t believe how calming and relaxing it was - nothing was able to break through that barrier and enter my thoughts. So serene.

Leaving the store was so strange. I felt intoxicated and carefree. I was totally calm and floated through the streets. Molly and I matched well today: chill girls in the sun.

Whew. And then I slept. A lot. Oops.

Katie hates driving standard. There's no question about it, driving sucks and adding about 100 other things to think about, a third pedal and some stupid knobby thing doesn't make it any better.

Release Brake. Ease clutch, find contact point. A little gas, looking for under 2000 rpms. Find friction point. More gas, clutch up and drive like a normal person. Gas up, clutch down, 2nd gear, clutch up, repeat.

I think I did this correctly four times in the hour I was on my lesson. :(
I'll get it. Damn you car, I'll get it!

While I was away from you, Livejournal, I went to Florida! In fact, we went to Orlando with James' baby sister and had an incredible time. Even though I've been to Disney a handful of times before with my own family, Tana knows WAY more about Disney and all the fun little subculture phenomena that don't make it into a standard vacation. Like, for instance, did you know that the cast members wearing the lanyards covered in pins will do trades for your pins? Yeah, didn't know that one, but Livi is all over the pin trades and it was really fun watching her agonize over which pins to keep and which to trade. Actually, the cutest thing possible happened during a pin trade: I love Figment - he's a character only talked about at Epcot and unless you've been there, you likely don't know who he is. Well Livi and Tana listened to me prattle on about Figment for half the week and when I was in the washroom Livi did a pin trade with a cast member for a Figment pin and then she gave it to me! How intensely adorable is that?! She had to do a trade and give up a pin to get me the Figment pin. I was nearly in tears, it was so lovely and sweet. Best moment ever.

And there's also hidden Mickey's at Disney World - that's where the Imagineers have incorporated Mickey shapes into their designs in a more discrete way. For instance, Livi found one between the sections of dock at the Grand Floridian. We were floored she found it just standing there waiting for the ferry. Very cool.

All told, it was an incredible trip and filled with more memories than I could ever relate. I really do want to go again with Livi and Tana - they're perfect travel family and we had a blast.

What else did we miss while I was being negligent? Derby! We played in the Beast of the East and rocked it harder than we ever thought we would. Made it all the way to sixth place out of sixteen. We followed this up with a not-so-great home game where we didn't do all that well, but we were happy to play and put on a fantastic event. Next time we'd really like to win it for the fans.

Day off today - driving lesson - my first on standard. Let's see what shape this guy's gear box is in after my lesson. Eeek.

Oh, and the store had its first birthday! I still can't believe it has been a year and so much has changed for me in this year. I love where I'm at and wouldn't trade it for anything.